


Nights in Copper Heights

by HexalianRebel_FeatheredPanda



Category: Original Work, Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Twilight Parody, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24448780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HexalianRebel_FeatheredPanda/pseuds/HexalianRebel_FeatheredPanda
Summary: (May 29th, 2020) Lately for some reason, I always feel compelled to share personal "history" on my birthdays. So, I want to share this 'novel' with you guys.Unlike The Power of Laughter, this one is more recent. From 2016, but still, it's closer to my current writing style. At the time, I was really into the idea of writing a Twilight parody that felt less...awkward. But when I look back at this, it's awkward for different reasons.I still kind of like it though, it feels more...realistic, I guess. Thank you to everyone who reads my things. I hope I'll be worth remembering until next year. ^w^
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (May 29th, 2020) Lately for some reason, I always feel compelled to share personal "history" on my birthdays. So, I want to share this 'novel' with you guys. 
> 
> Unlike The Power of Laughter, this one is more recent. From 2016, but still, it's closer to my current writing style. At the time, I was really into the idea of writing a Twilight parody that felt less...awkward. But when I look back at this, it's awkward for different reasons.
> 
> I still kind of like it though, it feels more...realistic, I guess. Thank you to everyone who reads my things. I hope I'll be worth remembering until next year. ^w^

Do you know what time of day it is when the sun is on the horizon; and the moon is just starting to become visible; and the sky is a delicious deep orange like the pumpkin and caramel sundaes at Halle’s Corner in town?

…And for God’s sake, don’t say Twilight.

In any case, my name is Annabeth Crowe, and I want to tell you about my first year living in Copper Heights, Washington.

# Chapter 1

I just moved to this small Washington state town last year to live with my dad and uncle. I had been making some strange--and frankly, pretty questionable--decisions back home, and my mom was getting sick of it. She was positive that sending me to live in the mountains would do me good. Being away from me probably did her some good too, I suppose.

I'll tell you right now that my dad was not on good terms with me at the time. In fact, one might even say I hated his guts. Honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't like him; he always seemed happy to see me and my mom when he came to visit us; of course, I never did like the way he always called me Annie. It probably had something to do with me going through my "Angst-y Teen" phase at the time—which goes along with those questionable choices in case you planned to ask.

I hadn't been in town a week before stuff got weird. My dad had gone out to register me at the local high school, and my uncle was out shopping; I remember him doing that a lot, actually. I was stuck at home, watching morning television. I was a few seconds from falling asleep when the news show that had been droning on for the past twenty minutes finally got interesting.

"A woman in Northwestern Washington was shocked to discover her neighbors: Mr. and Mrs. Carson brutally murdered in their home. She is reported in saying that she noticed their front door broken open and grew concerned." --They flashed up a police photo of the front of the house; 'broken' didn't come close to describing the way that door hung from only one of its hinges. "Local officials are also requesting that citizens keep an eye out for the couple's teenage son, Edwin, and young daughter, Veronica, neither of whom were found at the scene--" Another picture was put up--this time of a boy around my age with short black hair and glasses over violet eyes, and a shorter girl with brown skin, bright green eyes, and long braids, both of whom were wearing Scouts’ uniforms. I rewound the television to get another look at the way the house’s door was broken. It was pushed outward and ready to fall down the house's front steps; the way the doorjamb was splintering made it pretty clear it wasn't supposed to be opened that way. Needless to say, it would take quite a bit of force to do something like that, so unless a car had come driving _out_ of their house, there was something unnatural going on.

And I was ecstatic.

Those questionable things I mentioned mainly included diving headlong into research on the supernatural when I was 10. My mom was sure that it was going to be just a phase that I would stop after I was further into my teens, but I’m in my junior year of high school, and I’m still not over it.

After going back in the news program again and recording it for later, I headed for the attic, where the boxes I hadn’t unpacked were being stored. I grabbed one of the flashlights from the hall closet and pulled down the ladder, climbing up and stumbling around until I found the boxes I was looking for.

My mom had more or less begged me not to take all of this stuff with me, but I had easily rebounded with the classic “If my stuff stays, I stay too,” line. Yes, the boxes were heavy, and those that weren’t carried really fragile things, but I had always known it’d be worth it. I tore open one of the larger boxes and pulled out “The Monster Encyclopedia”: a thick tome more or less thrown together and given to me by a friend from my last school: Stephanie. Just trust me when I say that she was probably the one everyone should have been worried about. Anyway, this book included anything and everything one needed to know about supernatural creatures, as defined by her anyway. I thumbed through the pages listing monsters and entities by name and ability, searching for anything that was capable of destroying the average doorframe of a relatively modern family home.

If you know anything about monsters, you could probably guess that I found a lot of potential suspects, but I was able to narrow things down since most of the creatures were rarely found in North America, let alone in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, it was narrowed all the way down to werewolves. By Stephanie’s definition, one of the most telling hints of someone being a werewolf or a werewolf being around is destructive power. Her book also suggested looking for claw marks and fur. I scoffed quietly as I closed the book; she used to say the same things about tracking bears. I couldn’t help but have my doubts; there probably would have been at least some announcement about hair and claw marks in the house. I even did some scavenging on the internet from my phone, so either this town’s police force was better at keeping secrets than my hometown, or the people who leak information were being slow about it.

“Beth? Are you up there?” My uncle had returned from his shopping excursion.

“Yeah, I’m here!” I called back down, getting up and kneeling beside the attic hatch. “Hey, Uncle Cedric.”

How would I describe my uncle? He’s definitely an eccentric one, just like me and my dad. Maybe it runs in their side of the family. When he isn’t out shopping, he does most of the stuff around the house. That is, when he’s not whining about how he’s between girlfriends again. I remember how much I used to love pulling his hair when I was little because it wasn’t red like his brother’s.

I slid down the ladder, standing beside my uncle. “Did you want something from me?”

“Well, I was calling you before to come help with the groceries, but I guess you couldn’t hear me from up there.” He smiled, lifting the ladder back into place.

“Do you want me to cook today?” I asked with a smirk.

My uncle laughed so hard, he almost dropped the ladder on his head. “No. Never again, darling.” He grinned over at me afterward, and I set my flashlight down to help him secure the hatch.

“So, when is dad supposed to get back? It feels like he’s been gone for hours.”

“Well, it’s been two hours since I first left, but the school officials aren’t the quickest bunch in our town. I estimate he’ll be back around two o’clock or so.”

“Should I have gone to the school with him?” I asked as Uncle Cedric walked back downstairs to put away his groceries.

“Probably.” He said bluntly. “Now come help me already, would you?”

We walked back down to the kitchen, and I immediately went about rifling through the bags he hadn’t unpacked on his own. “Did you buy the ingredients I asked you to get?”

“Yeah, um, about that…”

I’d heard that lead-in before. “I told you I’d be careful!” I basically whined.

“Yes, I know, and I believe it, but don’t you think you should give all this ‘spellcasting’ a rest?”

“Uncle Cedric,” I said calmly. “I know you and Dad don’t think I can handle this, but all my books say you shouldn’t practice witchcraft if you can’t even master basic spellcasting.”

“That isn’t the problem, Annabeth. Your mother said—”

“Let me guess: ‘Malcom, our daughter is out of control! All this talk of witches and whatnot; oh, my stars, it’s unbearable! You and Cedric better make sure she stays in line!”

Uncle Cedric was chuckling again, though he was desperately trying not to. Yeah, I was winning. “You’re a little too good at that accent.” He smiled. “Maybe you can take up comedy instead.”

“Not a chance, Uncle Cedric.” I laughed, taking the bag of wheatgrass that was probably for my dad and setting it aside to take back upstairs later.

He just sighed; he’d try again later.


	2. Chapter 2

My dad was able to technically get me registered for classes, but the principal wanted to meet me before I officially started. So, by the time I went in for my first day, half the school already knew my face. Two boys accosted me while I was trying to get my locker open.

“Hey, you,” The taller of the two said smoothly; his grin was so slimy, I was surprised at how white his teeth were. “You’re…Isabella, right?”

“It’s Annabeth, actually.” I huffed, wondering if this locker was a good enough excuse to break out my emergency screwdriver.

“Sorry,” the other guy yawned softly, carding a hand through his light brown hair. “She was kind of a celebrity around here for a while. Good to meet you, though; we saw you here with your dad yesterday.”

“Yeah, you looked pretty good in those black jeans.” The tall one smirked, and the other guy rolled his eyes.

“How do you know it was me wearing black jeans?”

“You might wanna watch your step here…” I heard the short guy whisper as I finally got the locker open.

Tall guy wasn’t one for watching anything though. He pressed a hand to my locker door, slamming it shut and shoving me back against it when I turned to yell at him.

I’ll admit I was nervous. He had that disgusting toothy grin on again, and there was a feeling of dread that I couldn’t place when I stared into his eyes. I could see other students staring at us, but most of them either froze uncertainly or just kept walking.

“Believe me…” He spoke in a low, husky whisper. “After seeing you once, I’d know you anywhere, Annie.”

I swallowed thickly; the smell of his breath was intoxicating, and not in a good way. “It’s Beth.” I choked out, though I couldn’t seem to make my hands move to shove him away.

He was just chuckling and leaning closer to me when I saw Short Guy getting shoved aside in my peripheral.

“Yo, Xavier!” A new voice was shouting, and a hand grabbed Tall Guy’s jacket. “You picking on new girls again, you little rat?”

“Let me go, you animal.”

This new character: a kind of muscular boy, and taller than the guy he was holding, with dark skin and blackish brown hair flowing down his back—more or less flung Xavier backward into the wall across from us. “Get to class, punk.” He growled.

“Are you the hall monitors’ dog now, Lindman?”

I couldn’t see his face from my place against my locker, but both Xavier and his friend suddenly flinched and the latter stepped back a bit. “Let’s just go, alright?!” he insisted, grabbing my would-be assailant by the arm and running off.

My savior finally turned to face me, and my body relaxed all at once. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing his eyes were. They were a mismatched blue and green set, and the gentle soul I could see behind them made me feel like I was safest right where I sat.

“Are you alright, new kid?” He asked lightly, leaning over to help me up.

“M-My name is Beth.” I stuttered almost reflexively. I hated being called ‘New Kid’ way more than I hated ‘Annie’. The way his hand felt when I grabbed it instantly made me curious. I wanted to read his palms the way my aunt had showed me. My mind grew cloudy with all the secrets I could find just from studying his hands.

“Oh, sorry.” He chuckled with a smile that showed his stunning white teeth, lightly shaking the hand of mine that he was holding. “My name’s Harper Lindman. It’s good to meet you.”

“Harper…” I murmured under my breath; you have to admit it’s a cute name. “Uh, I… Who was that guy?”

“Xavier? He’s just some jackass who thinks he’s all high and mighty. I do kind of advise staying away from him though; he may not be too dangerous, but he has some pretty tough goons.”

“Tough like his little friend there?”

“No. Definitely not like Todd; Todd’s more of a wingman than a goon.”

“Either way, I guess I have more than one reason to avoid him then.” I smiled softly, and Harper laughed.

He flinched as the school bell suddenly rang. “Ah, man. I have to run. I’ll look for you at lunch, okay?” He waved to me as he ran off down the hall.

I admit that I kind of stood about like an idiot in a love-struck stupor for at least another minute before wandering to my own first class.

I managed to avoid the tardy card by claiming that I had gotten lost in the hall, and after I sat down, the girl beside me was quick to strike up conversation. I told her what had happened to me at my locker.

“Yeah…” she murmured softly so the teacher wouldn’t hear. “That sounds like something Xavier would do.”

“Does it happen often?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “A little, I guess. It’s usually other stuff though. People are always reporting him for one thing or another, but no one actually does anything.”

I was a little surprised that she didn’t mention Harper, but I was a bit more curious about other things, so I didn’t mention him either.

“Hey,” I said, trying to be nonchalant about it. “Do you know anyone named Edwin?”

Her face suddenly fell, and the guy on my other side piped up. “Do you mean Carson? I saw him on the news last night.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I did too. He and his sister are missing.”

The girl sighed softly. “We know them. I hope they’re alright; Edwin’s really timid sometimes. His sister is kind of his voice when they’re together.”

“Well, has anyone tried to look for them?”

“The police are telling us to hold off on public involvement for a few days. Search parties are forming next week or something.”

“You don’t think someone would try to hurt them, do you?”

She glared at me, her eyes narrowed. “What’s with the detective act?” she snapped as quietly as possible. “We don’t know where they are now, alright?”

I cringed slightly; I’ll admit that I probably could have arranged my questions better.

The guy on my right softly nudged my arm. “Give Tanya some time.” He whispered. “She’s just worried about them; Edwin’s sister is a friend of her brother’s.”

“Sorry, I’m just curious; I want to help find them.”

“Yeah, I picked up on that much. I know where volunteers are signing up for the search parties. I’ll take you there after school.”


	3. Chapter 3

As the noontime sun cast its light over the streets of Copper Heights, a somewhat small teen cloaked in black darted between the shadows of trees and houses at a blinding speed. He stopped under a tall evergreen, panting and pulling a blood-flecked cell phone from his pocket.

“Dammit, sis, pick up…” a hoarse, nervous voice mumbled, dialing a number on the phone. When there was no answer, he groaned and shoved the phone back in his pocket, glancing up hopelessly through the tree branches. The streaks of sunlight that crept through the branches and struck his face made him cry out. He quickly covered his face with his arm, and even through the sleeve, he could feel the blisters forming on his cheek and forehead. He groaned and started running again. He couldn’t keep this up for much longer. It had already been three nights since all this chaos started for him.

He spotted a house that had an unaltered attic window. It surprised him; usually people had those things boarded up from the outside nowadays. He climbed the tree just outside the old house. He didn’t think he would ever get used to how easy climbing was now.

The window didn’t even have a working latch on it. Maybe there was a reason why people were covering them up. It took at least four good shoves to work the window open; a large, heavy crate was blocking its hinges. By the time it was open, he had managed to get more burns on his face and on his hands as well. He quickly crawled into the house’s attic, pushing the crate back over the window to block the sunlight from chasing him in. He held his hands to his chest; the pain had been unbearable, but he could already feel it fading, and softly running his fingers over his wounds made him realize that they were already shrinking. He sighed, relaxing just a bit and looking around.

To any normal person, the room was pitch black; no natural light at all and no sockets for light bulbs. But his eyes adjusted to the lack of light fairly quickly, seeing everything in greys and shadows. He managed to find a very old, thick mattress. It was lousy with dust, and the blanket on top of it had a moth hole or seven; but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He dropped heavily onto the soft cushion, drifting to sleep for the first time since all this had started.

Even as he faded into unconsciousness, his priority remained at the front of his mind: He had to find Veronica.


	4. Chapter 4

I know that admitting this might make me seem like a complete idiot to some people; and believe me, I feel like an idiot for letting it happen…

But I didn’t realize that there was someone hiding in my attic for three nights and two mornings.

Yeah…I had heard a few taps above the ceiling at night while I was trying to sleep, but I assumed that it was just a raccoon or something. Honestly, I should have been more concerned if there was a chance it was an animal: they could have destroyed my books. I even noticed that one or two things were missing from our kitchen cupboards, but I figured it was just my dad or Uncle Cedric.

Staying on track, though, it wasn’t until after school on Friday that I came home and actually heard a louder-than-usual rattling. I immediately recognized it as the ladder attached to the attic hatch. I quietly made my way up to my room, tossing my backpack onto my bed and grabbing my flashlight. It has a surprisingly good swinging weight to it; I once fought a coyote off of my ankle with it.

I approached the attic hatch, tapping the flashlight on my hand as I worked up my nerve. “Is somebody up there?” I called loudly, reaching out to grab the rope hanging from the handle. When there was no answer, I pulled down the hatch and caught the ladder before it could unfold onto my head. I took a deep breath and climbed up into the attic, shining my flashlight around the room. Given that no one tried to hit me with a heavy object as soon as I’d entered, I figured they were hiding somewhere.

“You might as well come out;” I said, pulling the hatch closed again. “I’m not leaving until you show yourself.”

I took a couple steps and nearly jumped out of my skin when I stepped on something that yowled and scampered away. I aimed my flashlight, managing to catch a skinny black cat with dirty white paws in the funnel of light. It hissed angrily at me, moving with a limp in its stride.

“I’m sorry, kitty…” I sighed soothingly, tiptoeing carefully after the cat in an attempt to catch it. Like I said before: I couldn’t let an animal run around potentially damaging—or worse yet, staining—my books and equipment. “Come back here.”

The cat moved surprisingly quickly for having a limp, and it slipped around a short wall of boxes. I followed with my light and immediately had to stifle a scream at what I found.

There was a boy fast asleep on a stack of two very old, dusty mattresses—I really was kind of stupid not to notice that the mattress usually resting on the wall near the hatch had been moved—The cat nuzzled his wrist, and his hand seemed to reflexively card over its head and ears, his fingers curling slightly before his hand dropped again. I cowered slightly at the sight of him just lying there, only relaxing a little when I pointed the light at his face and realized he was around my age.

He cringed a bit, bringing his hand up again to shield his face from the light. “H-Hey…” he whined; his voice was raspy and dry, like he hadn’t so much as seen water in all those days. “Turn it off…”

Somehow, hearing him speak reminded me that he was just a teenager—as far as I knew at the time—and it gave me the courage to lightly kick his back. “Hey?!” I asked him roughly, angry that I had been worked up over this skinny off-brand pencil of a kid. “What’s that supposed to mean? What the hell are you doing here?!”

He seemed to wince at my volume, shrugging off the old duvet he had been sleeping under. “L-Listen, can you please, uh… c-calm down a little? I’m still not completely…”

“Why should I be calm?!” I yelled at him, and he and the cat shrank away from me again. “This is my house! And I know you’ve been stealing from our kitchen.”

“I only took stuff to feed Licorice… And this isn’t exactly ‘your’ house…” he murmured, letting the cat brush its cheeks on his arm. “Malcom and Cedric Crowe live here. I figure you only moved here recently. You’re, um, Malcom’s daughter, right? Annie?”

I tightened my grip on the flashlight and genuinely considered braining him just for that. “It’s Beth.” I huffed. “Call me Beth.”

“Sorry…” he sighed, crossing his legs and pulling his hood off. He felt around the floor, his fingers closing around a pair of green-framed glasses. “They used to talk about you a lot.”

“How do you know my dad and his brother anyway?” I asked, my irritation ebbing away a slightly. I stood the flashlight on its base, so the funnel of light opened toward the ceiling.

He shrugged, running a hand through his raven hair as I sat across from him; I was prepared to grab my flashlight again if I had to. “Everyone around town knows them.” He explained. “They do a lot of volunteer work and stuff like that; Cedric is probably friends with 80% of the population. I kind of remember once when…”

I had stopped listening to him in favor of studying his face. He looked really familiar. Yeah, I was pretty dumb not to see it the minute I first put the light in his face.

“Hey, can you stop that, please?” he was asking me. I blinked back to the present, quickly noticing that I had unconsciously picked up the lamp and was pointing it right into his face again.

It finally dawned on me the way a speeding car dawns on a jaywalker. “You’re Edwin Carson, aren’t you?” I asked, not entirely believing it myself.

His eyes immediately grew a bit fearful. “Uh, yes? H-How do you know my name?”

“You don’t know?! Your face has been all over the news this week. Your parents are freaking dead, man!”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t remind me…” He groaned, running his hands over his face. “I feel terrible…”

“You sound terrible.” I joked gently. “Have you even eaten anything since you ‘disappeared’?”

“No… I told you before: I only took things for Licorice.” The cat crawled into his lap, nuzzling his stomach. “She looked like she had been up here for a long time, so I took a few tuna cans and a couple of water bottles.”

I decided not to mention that Uncle Cedric had told me that his new cat had apparently run ‘away’ the week before I moved in. “Nothing for yourself though? Aren’t you hungry?”

He cringed slightly, sighing. “I’m starving…” he admitted hoarsely.

“I can bring you something if you want.” I insisted. “You’re not allergic to anything, are you?”

“Well, I know I can’t eat rye, but other than that, no.”

“I think I know what you need.” I smirked slightly, standing up. As I turned to leave, Edwin grabbed my wrist.

“Hey…” Edwin murmured, sounding a little more than worried. “You aren’t going to tell Cedric and Malcom that I’m up here, right?”

“Uh…” Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it. Now that he’d mentioned it, it sounded like something I should prioritize. “Why wouldn’t you want them to know? You said yourself they’re such good and helpful people.”

He shook his head. “They are. Good, helpful, and hasty. If they know where I am, they’ll ask me what happened to my parents, or worse yet, turn me into the police.” His grip tightened a bit, and his voice started to shake. “A-And I can’t get turned in; I just can’t! N-Not yet, okay?”

“Okay, okay…” I said, resting my free hand on his cheek soothingly. “Let me just get you some food first. We’ll discuss your problem in a minute.”

He seemed to calm down, so I slowly took my hands back. I carded one of them gently through his dirty hair with a soft smile. His eyes were still fearful, worried that I would betray him. Licorice curled up beside him again as I took my flashlight and went back to the ladder.


	5. Chapter 5

As I stood in the kitchen heating up a bowl of the Steak-Alfredo pasta my dad had made the night before, the doorbell rang impatiently. Whoever was out there was abusing the button as though it were on a game controller.

“Alright; Alright!” I called out, stepping over to the door. “Relax, I’m here.” I pulled open the door, immediately cowering a bit at the sight of two police officers. “Uh, hi?”

“Good afternoon, ma’am.” The larger of the two said, stepping forward and smoothing his blonde bangs out of his face; his hazel eyes were inviting, yet unsettling. “Is Malcom here? Or Cedric?”

“No, they’re still out. Who are you guys, exactly?”

“Officer Cedar.” The other one said, leaning over and offering her hand to shake as she tossed her own curly brown hair over her shoulder. The man nudged her with his elbow and glared before I could shake her hand. I nervously tucked my hand into my pocket, unsure of how to respond to that, or if I was even supposed to.

“So, can I help you guys?” I asked awkwardly.

“Perhaps.” The man spoke a bit softly, still eyeing his partner as he pulled a folder from under his arm. “Have you seen this boy recently?” He pulled two blown-up photos from the folder. They were yearbook photos; both of Edwin, one being just a headshot while the other looked cut from a group photo. Of course two cops looking for him would show up at my house right then, of all times.

“If you mean aside from all the news’ stories, I have to say no.” I said as calmly as I could, trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. Both of them gave me a strange look, and they suddenly seemed at least two times taller and four times more intimidating apiece. I swallowed nervously, stepping back a bit; I wondered if I was skilled enough to drive them away with a spell.

And then the woman, Officer Cedar, was rapidly tapping her partner’s shoulder. He glanced back, and I leaned over just a bit to see past them. All I could see was a mail van sitting across the street; the postal worker sat at the wheel, looking through the envelopes and packages before getting out to place them in the mailbox.

“Listen, if you see him, call it in, okay?” The blonde officer put away the photos, and then he pulled a card out of his pocket and practically tossed it at me. They were trying really hard to get away all of a sudden.

“Officer Lorka?” I read from the card. The man was whispering to his partner, and didn’t respond. “Mr. Lorka?”

I pretended not to notice the fact that Officer Cedar had to slap his arm and signal toward me with her eyes before he finally got it. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked me.

“So, this is your number, or the station’s?”

“It’s the station’s number, a dispatcher will pick up for you.” The pair was halfway to the next house already. I decided not to stop them again. As curious as I was, it wasn’t like I actually wanted them around. I couldn’t help glancing over at the mailman as he climbed out of his van and walked over to our mailbox; they had seemed pretty scared of him. He noticed me staring and brought the mail right to me.

“Good afternoon…Beth, right?” he asked with a sincere smile that reached his eyes. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about his eyepatch. His breath smelled of a smoker’s; it gave me calming flashbacks of my mother. He offered a handshake as his other hand offered the mail; and I smiled as I accepted both.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I answered him.

“Dexter Huxley, dear.” He grinned. “Good to finally meet you. Cedric went on and on about how you’d be living here.”

“My dad didn’t say anything about me?” He wasn’t really my favorite person, but it was still a little upsetting that my uncle would brag about me more than my own dad.

“Oh, please, he was even worse.” Dexter smirked. “He was breaking out the baby pictures at the diner; the whole nine yards. I was embarrassed for you.”

I laughed; that did sound like something he’d do, and he’d probably do it even more now that I was actually around. I offered a second handshake to him and thanked him for the mail. He accepted the handshake with a toothy grin; he suddenly seemed so familiar.

“Um, hey.” I called after him when he turned to walk away. “You saw those officers, right? They were staring at you…”

His entire demeanor seemed to change; he sighed and flicked the sunglasses tucked into his breast pocket. “Listen, kid. I’ve never been stared at by any officers in my life. That’s all I’ll say. Be safe, Beth; Malcom and Cedric would feel terrible if something happened to you.” He went back to the mail van, and I was too lost in thought to try to stop him.

Never in his entire life? Had he done something that warranted him being stared at by police? And considering what had just happened, he had to be either lying or in denial. One or the other… He seemed like a nice enough guy; I thought about asking my dad about him when he got home.

That of all things reminded me that I had to make sure Edwin got some food before my dad or Uncle Cedric got back. I returned to the kitchen to grab the bowl of pasta; I had to reheat it again, but immediately after, I made my way back to the attic.

My so-called guest was surprisingly absent from the mattresses when I had gotten over to them. I swept my flashlight around the room, and Licorice squinted at me from on top of a box.

“Edwin?” I called out, stepping carefully around boxes.

“I’m over here!”

As I followed his voice to the corner it had come from, I nearly broke my arm restraining myself from smacking him with the flashlight. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He looked up from the heavy tome he had open on his lap. “Oh, sorry… Licorice was lurking around this box, so I went to grab her. I saw this book, and I guess I couldn’t help myself.”

I took a breath and calmed down. “You normally go snooping through other people’s stuff?” I joked, handing him the bowl.

“I said I was sorry!” He thumbed a few pages of the tome with his free hand. “This book is crazy though. There’s all these recipes and spells… Who even wrote this thing?”

“Who knows? It’s a really old book.” I sat beside him, taking the book into my lap while he started eating. I held my flashlight up so I could read it.

“Well, honestly, no offense, but I’m kinda surprised Malcom and Cedric have stuff like this up here. I never would have expected this from them.”

I couldn’t help chuckling. “You shouldn’t expect it from them. These books are mine.”

He suddenly seemed a little uncomfortable. “Y’know, uh… You know witchcraft and stuff aren’t real…Right?”

I huffed, lifting the book and setting it on the floor. “I’m not stupid, Edwin…”

“I-I’m sorry; I wasn’t trying to imply that!”

I pat his shoulder. “Hey, relax. I wouldn’t care if you were implying it. I know witchcraft exists.”

He kind of just stared at me, clearly afraid to say anything.

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll show you something some other time, okay?” I noticed all of a sudden that he had practically cleaned the bowl already. “You really shouldn’t eat that fast if you’ve been starving…” I said softly as I took it from him.

“Oh, I, uh… I hadn’t really noticed.” He cringed slightly. “I’m so hungry…”

“I’ll bring you something else later, if you’re still awake. Try to keep Licorice out of my stuff for me.”

Edwin nodded, picking up the book in one hand and, more hesitantly, the kitten as she passed by.

I smiled softly at him. “And tomorrow, we’ll discuss what you’re so worried about.”

“You won’t tell anyone about me, right?”

“I’ll keep your dirty secret for now, but if something’s really wrong, I might not be able to help you by myself.”

He just stared at me uncertainly. I could hear the front door closing downstairs, so I motioned for him to keep quiet before leaving him there. I lifted the ladder back into place before going down to see who had returned.

“Oh…” I mumbled as soon as I saw the shock of fire-red hair. “Hey, dad, how’s tricks?”

My father, Malcom Crowe, was just sort of standing in the foyer. His eyes scanned the ceiling with a glare that could probably cut clean through diamonds. It didn’t really occur to me earlier, but he had been doing that a lot for the past few days. I had figured he was just being weird again; if what Dexter said was true, even the people around here knew he was a goofball. I sighed heavily, curiosity getting the better of me and dragging me over to where he stood. “Dad, what are you doing?” I asked halfheartedly.

He seemed to flinch at the realization that I was actually there. Or maybe it was because I was talking to him, which I rarely did, even though it was his house. “Evening, Annie,” He said with a soft face, immediately making me regret asking. “Hey, uh, you haven’t seen any cobwebs in your room, have you?”

“Not at all.” I must have had some kind of look on my face as I said that, because my dad seemed to get really nervous. “I’ve been keeping my room pretty clean, thanks.”

“W-Well, I—” He stuttered. “I didn’t mean it like—Ugh, never mind. Maybe I’m seeing things…” He looked around the room one last time before gently patting my shoulder as he walked by me. “So, how’s your first week of school been?”

“Tolerable.” I joked, making him chuckle as I approached him. “Where’s Uncle Cedric?”

He hummed softly, looking through the fridge. “My brother’s off at the church again. He’s been doing a lot of work there lately.” He stood up, carrying the pot of leftover pasta and setting it back on the stove. “They don’t exactly have much help anymore.”

He seemed so somber when he said that. “Did something happen to the people that were helping?” I asked softly as I watched him reheat dinner from two days ago.

“You’d have to ask Cedric that.” He said quickly. “All I know is they stop showing up. For whatever reasons…”

I huffed softly. I used to hate it when he spoke so cryptically. I looked up at him, tapping my nails lightly on the counter as I decided I’d change the subject. “Dad, do you know the mailman?”

“Hm? Oh, you mean the smoker with the one eye? Yeah, I kind of know him; I’ve seen him floating around the diner when I go for lunch. He’s a nice guy, honestly, always looking out for everyone. Why? What’d you think of him?”

“N-Nothing; he seemed nice.” He glanced at me awkwardly as I tried to choose my words. “So, uh, are you going to be part of that search party for those kids? From that news story?”

“I am on it, Annie. My block goes out in the early morning; that’s why I haven’t been around when you go to school. I hope they’re alright; what happened to their parents was just heinous.”

“…Did you know them?”

His hands paused where they were reaching for a bowl in the cupboard. They came down slowly, but heavily; and at the time, I didn’t acknowledge the click his nails made against the counter. “Yeah, we knew them. Cedric told me the parents’ names were Rodney and Natasha. They were churchgoers; brought their kids sometimes. I always saw them with their scout troops in the mall selling brownies or working for charity. They’re good people; they didn’t deserve this.”

I could have told him that, and I didn’t even know them. I tried to pick my words carefully again; I couldn’t risk giving Edwin away already.

“Have you, um… Have you met any of the police around here?”

“Did you spook the neighbors with your witchcraft or something?”

I almost laughed. “No, Dad. Some officers came by looking for the kids.”

“They stopped by here? Like, on foot?” he seemed a bit shocked. “Never heard that before. Then again, cops in this town have always been quiet since I’ve lived here. I hadn’t seen many officers around until this whole incident.”

I tapped my chin, pulling the officer’s card from my pocket and glancing it over again, hoping to lock the phone number in my mind before I handed it over to my dad. “They told me that we should call this number if we see either of the kids.”

He looked it over pretty quickly. “Terrance Lorka? I think I know that guy.” He chuckled. “Darn, I wish I’d been here.” He took a glance out the window. “Hm. Annabeth, I’m going to work outside for a little while. Don’t burn the house down.”

He ruffled my hair as he walked by; he knew I wasn’t any good at fire-based spells anyway.

“Yeah, yeah…” I huffed. “Lucky I can’t burn your flowers.” I taunted under my breath.

He paused and glared at me, and I flinched. There was something about his eyes all of a sudden; they were cold and dark, like a hunter’s. Of course, at the time, I was just surprised that he had heard me at all.

“Just stay in the house…” he growled. “Go do your homework or something.”

I quickly went upstairs toward my room, glancing up at the attic hatch when I heard a soft meow.


	6. Chapter 6

Edwin couldn’t help but stare at this tiny cat, sitting atop one of the crates across from where he was sitting. The kitten ran the flat of her tongue against her belly, licking her dirty white paws as well to clean her small black face and bicolored ears.

She was so small, and so skinny from being trapped up in this dark attic for so long.

She wasn’t worth the effort, and what would Beth say?

The kitten looked up at him and mewled; the little thump of her heart was audible to him alone. He felt his tongue pass over his teeth as he gripped the sweatshirt he wore.

Why was it getting so hard to resist? She was just a cat. Still a kitten. Still a baby. A child.

His eyes were locked on her when she moved down from the crate, and he flinched when the kitten nuzzled underneath his chin.

She was right there now. He was desperate to keep his hands still; but it’d be so easy.

But it wouldn’t be worth it. It wouldn’t last long enough.

But he was starving.

His hand was moving, fingers twitching as they caressed soft black fur.

“It’s okay…” he whispered, brushing gently down to her purring neck and back. “It’s okay. I-I won’t do it. I can’t…”

His body screamed otherwise, sharpened canines grazing the sides of his bottom teeth as his breath became hoarse and heavy.

Suddenly, a light. He flinched as the hatch was pushed open, and the kitten was startled away by the sound. He kept himself still while Beth climbed up into the attic.

“You still okay up here?” she called softly, setting the bright flashlight on the floor as she climbed up. She was in her pajamas: a pretty loose shirt with sleeves cutting off just below her elbows and plain cotton pants flowing at the ankles printed with multicolored butterflies and dragonflies mingled together. His friend. She was approaching.

“Y-Yes…” he lied, still unable to find his breath.

Beth wouldn’t be so easy. There was fight in her; he could feel it.

No. Don’t even think about her like that. She wanted to help him.

But she was getting closer, just like Licorice had.

“Here.” She smiled, holding out three sandwiches encased in plastic wrap and a bottle of chocolate milk. “I know they aren’t much, but I wanted to make sure you had something before I went to bed. Eat slowly this time, okay?”

He accepted the sandwiches as she set the bottle down beside the mattresses, but they seemed to slip out of his hands as he found himself staring at the exposed skin on her arm. One could trace her veins easily through her smooth, slightly pale skin.

“I’ll see you after school tomorrow. Try to feel bett—” She froze, staring at him.

He had grabbed her by the arm; his breathing was silent, but heavy. He could feel it within her: the blood pumping, her heart rate picking up, and the tug of the muscles in her arm.

“Edwin…” She said slowly; he could see out of his peripheral—though it just barely registered through his blind hunger—her other hand was lightly juggling the flashlight, finding a place to grip from with a likely intent to hit him if necessary. “Edwin!”

He flinched sharply, forcing his hand back. And grabbing at his hair. “I’m sorry!” he shouted. “I-I can’t… I just…” He didn’t want to say any more; he wasn’t sure how to put it. There wasn’t really a way it could be said without scaring her, or worse yet, triggering her to attack him.

“Hey, hey…” She said softly, kneeling on the floor to see him, but staying a good distance away. She was still too close. “Look, relax, okay? You’re safe here. I’m not going to rat you out.”

He nodded, cringing a bit and continuing to silently take labored breaths. “Sorry…” he said again.

“Do you think you’ll be okay until I come back from school?”

He nodded more quickly this time. “I-I’ll be fine. Go on. Go rest.” He insisted.

Get away.

She still seemed hesitant to leave him, but she stood up to go, still clutching her flashlight in a weaponized position. She had her eyes on him the entire way back to the open hatch, and as she disappeared down the ladder, he picked up the sandwiches. They wouldn’t be enough; it was like teasing a starving bear.

He stared at his own arm. The bite marks had healed, and the scar was already nearing invisible. He wasn’t going to try that again; despite the pain, he still valued his life more. He blinked and cringed, tears burning their way down his cheeks. He wasn’t going to last much longer.

He could hear the kitten’s heartbeat nearby.


	7. Chapter 7

I know I didn’t mention it before, but the population of Copper Heights is apparently devoid of morning people. Everyone leaned toward irritable and snappy when they arrived at school, barring the teachers, who were likely just suppressing it. Now, it’s not like I’m a morning person; I try to keep my relative apathy and snarky attitude consistent, even on my off days; but really, though, people in this town are borderline violent in the early morning. I actually walked by Tanya—that girl I’d spoken to about Edwin in class on Monday prior—showing some pretty aggressive body language to a taller guy that was talking to her.

I took a quick second to make sure it wasn’t Xavier before I approached them. “Uh, hey, guys.”

The way Tanya’s eyes cut into me made me flinch. They were bright green—the light caught them and made them sparkle. She blinked slowly, and her features softened before she finally spoke to me. “S-Sorry.” She murmured, still casting a look at the guy as her fingers toyed with her braids. “What’s up, Beth?”

“Who’s he?” I motioned to the guy with one hand, the other holding the strap of my backpack.

“Just a friend of mine. When he’s not hounding me, I mean. Get lost already, would ya?”

The guy eyed her with a slight scowl on his lips, but turned on his heel and left.

“Just a friend, huh?” I teased once he was gone.

She chuckled tiredly. “Yes, a friend.” She yawned. “Last night dragged on forever. Those kids must be in hiding; no one is this hard to find.”

“You had a search party last night? I thought your shift was after school with me.”

She shrugged, but her eyes seemed nervous. “I take doubles. Like I said, I knew Veronica personally. My brother’s worried sick.” I think she noticed the skepticism in my eyes—which I admit is my normal expression—because she suddenly changed the subject. “Hey, you. Harper told me Xavier’s had an eye on you all week. You okay?”

“Is there a reason why I wouldn’t be? He’s just some pervy jerk.”

I could see her teeth tugging at her lower lip. “Sure, uh… Just be careful around him, okay? You just got here; I’d really hate to see you get mixed up with trouble like his group.” She started to leave, still seeming tired, yet at the same time, more alert.

“But why is he so dangerous?” I asked, crossing my arms. Obviously, I wasn’t looking to interact with the guy again; but seriously, she was the second person to tell me he was dangerous. 

She just kept walking though, as if she hadn’t heard me. I didn’t feel like chasing her down over it either. She was right, after all: I had just gotten here. I had the right to look into the validity of their claims and make my own mistakes. I wasn’t going to look into it—not intentionally anyway—but I had the right.

I hurried to my own locker after Tanya walked off on me. While I was hanging up my coat, I was surprised by who I saw toying with the locker a ways down the hall from mine.

“Uh, hey.” I called to him.

He flinched slightly as he looked at me, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Hey, Beth.” He murmured halfheartedly. Even mumbling, I recognized his voice, though I was surprised he remembered my name. I felt a little bad that I didn’t remember his.

“You’re… Xavier’s little friend, aren’t you?”

His teeth worried his lip and what looked like the inside of his cheek. “I guess so.” He turned back to the locker, placing his hand on the dial the way a person who’d never encountered a combination lock before might.

“Looking for something?” I called, purposefully sounding suspicious.

“What do you think?” he sighed heavily, messing with the dial as if he was looking for the combination.

I kind of stared at him, hooking my coat up in my own locker. Ever since I’d first seen this guy trailing behind Xavier, I could tell there was something wrong with him. His voice was hollow and quiet, and his face always looked like he was on the last step off the side of a bridge.

“So, uh, whose locker is that?” There wasn’t much of a point in pretending I didn’t know he was trying to break into it.

“Some guy Xavier’s looking for.” He admitted way faster than I thought he would. “Whole town’s bending over backwards looking for him, but sure, let’s have a private manhunt.”

“He’s looking for that missing kid too?”

He dropped the lock, eying me in a frustrated way. “His name’s Edward, I think. Something like that. But yeah; Xavier’s after him. Dragging me behind him, as usual.”

I had approached him, standing just a bit shorter now that I could actually compare. “So, uh…” I wondered if I was walking a line. Just because he seemed depressed and broken didn’t mean he couldn’t lash out at me if he felt like it. “Are you okay? You seem, um, how should I put it…?”

“That depends on what you define as okay. But I’m alive.” He looked down at me, eyes shadowed under his hood. They were dark and clouded, like he could break down crying right there. “That’s all that matters these days…”

I almost tried to hug him, but he had turned on his heel and walked off. Actually, it was more of a jog. I blinked curiously; he couldn’t have been afraid of me already, could he?

Deciding to look into it later, I glanced up at the locker. Edwin’s locker; it was 6 doors away from my own. Why would Xavier be after Edwin? They didn’t exactly seem like the type of people who would share the same company. It was times like these where I had debated whether I wanted to study witchcraft or pick up some better detective skills.

While I was distracted, someone grabbed my shoulders and shook gently. “Hey, sis!”

I yelped and spun around, about to strike them. “H-Harper?!” I squeaked, my hands gripping the strap on my bag. His bright, mismatched eyes seemed to sparkle as he smiled and brushed his long hair out of his face. “W-What are you doing?”

“I was looking for someone. Could have sworn he was over here. Kind of a gloomy guy, about your height…”

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t listening. Not completely, anyway. I can’t really describe it, but the sound of Harper’s voice was mesmerizing to me. He shook my shoulder again; I must have looked like I was a million miles away.

“You okay, Beth?” he asked me, and I tried not to blush at the weight of his large hand on my arm.

I nodded quickly. “I did see a guy like that. Xavier’s friend.”

His eyes lit up like a puppy’s when you presented them with a toy. “That was Todd, yeah!” He practically bounced on his toes, looking pretty hilarious with how big he already was; but he corrected himself to at least standing still. “Uh, what was he up to?”

I made a vague motion with my hand, not wanting to risk dropping Edwin’s name. “He was messing with one of these lockers.” I rested my other hand on Harper’s with a slight smile; I still hadn’t gotten a chance to read his palms yet. “Do you know him? He looked pretty upset about something.”

His face fell completely, and it surprised me that someone so big and rough could be so easy to read. “Yeah, he’s been like that for a while.” He took his hand back as he walked by me. “I’ll find him though, maybe tell him you’re worried.” He smirked at me and giggled, and I rolled my eyes with a smile. He paused suddenly when he passed Edwin’s locker, and he glanced over at it. His face was curtained by all that hair, so I couldn’t see his eyes this time. Besides, if he caught me staring, he might get suspicious. I finally closed my own locker, turning to head to my first class that I was probably going to be late for again.

“Beth?” I stopped instantly at Harper’s voice calling my name. He had rushed back to me, his eyes panicked and his hands shaking a bit. “L-Listen, do you think we could talk after school?” he asked hurriedly. “In the courtyard. You know where the doors are, right?”

“Um, yeah, of course.” There were exits to the courtyard all over the school, not to mention the big double-doors in the cafeteria.

“Okay, good… Good. I’ll see you later then.” He broke into a run as he finished talking, and I was tempted to do the same when I checked my watch. The bell rang just as I stepped into the classroom, and my teacher was willing to let me off the hook.


	8. Chapter 8

Lunch that day was actually pretty significant. Not because of the poker tournament that broke out in one corner of the cafeteria, but because I noticed Todd sitting alone. He was practically reclined in the chair, looking, from the distance I was standing at, surprisingly relaxed in the somewhat uncomfortable chair.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you looked happy.” I teased, leaning over the chair to smile down at him.

He blinked his dark copper eyes open, huffing his bangs out of his face as he sat up properly in the chair and flipped his hood off. His hair was chaotic and he somehow looked more tired than he had that morning. “What are you doing over here, Beth?” he sighed. “You don’t like poker or something?”

“Could ask you the same thing.” I slipped into a chair at the table, and since he didn’t try to get rid of me, I pulled my lunch bag out of my backpack and placed it on the table. “So, um, Harper was looking for you this morning. Did you see him?”

He shrugged, running a hand through his messy brown hair. “I had to get to class. Guess I missed him…” It suddenly dawned on me that this was the same thing that my friend Stephanie did for me when I first started middle school back in Arizona. She had been quick to try and befriend me when I was scared and feeling alone; it had actually been a little while after my parents broke up. She had left with me a lot more than just her occult practices. I tapped my chin as I thought of what she might have said to someone like Todd at the time. The way he sighed and pulled his own lunch out of his bag helped speed up my thought process.

“Y’know…” I said, catching his attention. “You’re behaving like a real dark cloud.”

He quirked an eyebrow at me as he opened his lunchbox, and I realized that I was saying something Stephanie might say if I called her yesterday, not six years ago. My train of thought couldn’t be stopped just yet though.

“Yeah, that’s it: a dark cloud. You just sort of float around, being upset. The way you talk doesn’t help either. I mean, I’ve known depressed people; but the ones I knew usually put up a little front when they were around people. Granted, I can respect you for that integrity, but geez, buddy. I’m not asking you to go around throwing sunshine dust or anything, but c’mon, crack a smile or something…”

He kind of just stared at me for a moment, a hand over his chin; and I noticed as he did that his eyes had that same soul-touching gaze that Xavier had, but it didn’t feel cold or oppressive. It wasn’t even empty like it had been that morning; he seemed alive all of a sudden, not by much, but more than nothing. I felt a pulse of shock in my heart when he snickered and gave a bit of hoarse laughter.

“That was quite a speech to give to someone you barely know.” He chuckled, his shoulders still shaking slightly. He coughed and cleared his throat before he reached across the table to offer his hand. “I’m Todd Jerison. Um, in case you didn’t know that.”

I giggled and shook his hand without hesitation. “Annabeth Crowe.” I said politely, as if he didn’t know my name, and he laughed lightly again. As he pulled his hand back, I felt an odd surge of happiness that I’d been able to help him a little; I wished I could do the same for Edwin so easily.

Now that we had formally introduced ourselves, and now that Todd was actually smiling, I suddenly felt a bit comfortable around him. After a few silent moments of eating lunch together, I decided I should play my wild card early if we were going to be friends.

“Can I show you something?” I asked conspiringly.

“As long as it’s not dead.” He said with a flat tone, smirking across the table at me; I prayed that he was joking as I pulled the spell book I’d been reading lately out of my backpack.

I set it with a resounding thump on the table and pushed it toward him. “I’ve been studying books like these for a while. They’re really cool, but I haven’t had much luck with—”

“Put that away!” he insisted in what could be described as a loud whisper. His eyes were suddenly aggressive, like he was going to lunge across the table and punch me in the face, and they practically glowed. “Are you trying to get me in trouble or something?!”

Get him in trouble? I was the one with the book. Not wanting to upset him again, I started to pull the book back.

“W-Wait…” He cringed and wrung his fingers nervously, glancing over his shoulder. “Let me see it…” He sighed like I had defeated him somehow.

I gave a somewhat confused chuckle and slid the book over to him again, getting up to sit in a chair closer to his. I rested my elbow on the table, finding myself in awe at the number of facial expressions Todd was capable of making after staring into the book for only a couple of minutes. He set it down, taking a deep breath as he looked at me.

“What exactly did you hope to gain from reading this?”

“Um, I wanted to learn how to practice witchcraft.” I admitted.

He bit his lip and I heard the heel of his sneaker tapping the floor. “Beth… My parents always taught us that any favor, no matter how small, should be repaid in kind whenever possible. Because of the kindness you showed me, and because I’m not a heartless animal, I’m going to ask you this in the least offensive way I can: Did you even read this thing?!”

I flinched slightly. His voice sounded so raspy when he tried to yell. “W-Well, I’ve been skimming it—”

He gripped the bridge of his nose, his other hand on my shoulder. “Beth, witchcraft is one of the most dangerous practices out there. Skimming is not okay. You haven’t tried to cast any of these, have you?”

“No, I was kind of focusing on the potions.” I reached to flip the pages to a potion for growing flowers. “I made this one the other day.” I rummaged through my bag for a small case, and I pulled a vial of the potion from that case, having planned to test it in the courtyard during my free period. He stared at the container with terror in his eyes, and I admit it wasn’t an appealing potion: it was a dark, swamp-like green with patches of off-blue and white.

“Y’know, this is a lot worse than I thought.” He took the vial from my hand, his thumb tentatively pressing the side of the stopper. “I think I see the problem here though; I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that you were missing some ingredients for this mess.”

I nodded, cringing and pointing to the list of steps in the book. “There’s something in here about a Flora Blessing. I had no idea what that meant, so I kind of skipped it.”

He nodded. “Looks like it. So you don’t know Flora’s Bless? How about Arctic Kiss? Or Minor Flare?”

I blinked, staring at him blankly.

He laughed softly. “There it is! You haven’t been able to learn witchcraft because you don’t know magic.”

“Well, obviously, that’s why I have this—”

“N-No. Beth, witchcraft and magic aren’t the same thing. In fact, magic itself isn’t exactly a ‘practice’ anyway.”

I admit I was skeptical; I had been looking into the occult and stuff like this for years, and having this guy I barely knew try to tell me off was funny, to say the least. “Okay, so what is it then?”

He shrugged casually, tapping the book. “It’s a resource, sort of like an element, but, um, not, I guess. It’s what you put into spells and potions like these to make them work.”

“And how would you know that?”

He rolled his eyes, a smirk on his face as he reached vaguely into the air, tracing his fingers in patterns through the open space. I eyed him curiously, until suddenly I was dumbfounded by the show of shimmering wisps that started to wrap around his moving fingers like cotton candy. He chuckled softly as he glanced at me.

“In order to do anything. Witchcraft, wizardry, every one of those ‘-mancy’ spells you can think of. All of them need magic to work, and the ability to pull magic into a usable form takes practice. It starts with doing things like this.” He pointed to the wisps floating around his fingers. “That’s what you need to practice. Focus, meditate, reach, and pull. In the meantime, I’ll let you have something.” He reached deeply into his backpack with his free hand, pulling out a string of round crystals, each almost as smooth as pearls. “Wrap this around your wrist and tie it off.” He explained as he held it out to me. “When you need to use a little spell for your potions, just crack one of the beads for some magic.”

I nodded eagerly as I wrapped the chain around my forearm. My eyes had been lighting up with excitement the entire time.

“And, hey, make sure you practice. By this time next week, you should be able to do something like this:” He brought his fingers closer to his lips and blew, the wisps of magic glowing for only a partial second before a long plume of orange fire reached toward the ceiling from his hand. I stared in shock, and I’m sure at least a few people crowding around the poker game did too.

He closed his hand as the flame disappeared, cracking his knuckles and showing off his unburned fingers. “Probably not exactly like that. Fire is dangerous, after all.” He chuckled a he caught sight of my face. “Don’t bother waiting for the fire alarm. One day, you’ll be able to learn that too.” He glanced at the clock, tapping the cover of my book before pushing it back toward me. “Maybe you can show me another book sometime. I might show you some of my own, my friend.” He stood up, smiling slightly as he heaved his bag onto his shoulder and started to leave.

“Um,” He paused, glancing back at me. “You do think of me as a friend now, right?” He seemed to cringe at his own question.

I had to laugh; I couldn’t help it. “Yeah, of course.” I assured him. He visibly relaxed before he finally waved and left, seeming in a bit of a hurry all of a sudden, just like he had been at the lockers. I decided I might as well leave too; it’d be interesting to show up early to class for once.

The doors to the gym were suddenly pushed open as I was walking past them, on the opposite side of the hallway, thank goodness. Most of the students seemed to be either pumped up or completely exhausted, with very few in between as they all seemed to migrate toward the cafeteria. I think I would have been pretty excited; it wasn’t every day that the gym teachers let their class out early.

“Beth! Hey, Beth, over here!” I flinched and glanced over my shoulder; I smiled when I saw Harper waving to me like a goofball. He was just so cute. I hadn’t been able to compare before, but he really was tall, towering over most of the crowd of his classmates. Something about it was almost off-putting, but I didn’t have time to place it.

“I never would have pictured you as a dog person, Annabeth.” I could practically taste the venom coming off the words ‘dog person’ as that painfully familiar voice made my skin crawl.

“Actually, I come from a family of cat people.” I tried for a joke as I turned to face the glare Xavier was giving while he looked down his nose at me.

“I suppose that’s better than the alternative.” He huffed, crossing his arms. “But, kitten, I hear you’re getting quite friendly with Harper.”

I winced, biting my lip. “Please, for the love of all gods imaginable, never call me kitten again.”

He just rolled his eyes, but he chuckled lowly.

“I don’t think it’s any of your business who my friends are anyway. Considering you aren’t one of them, I mean.”

He sighed and crossed his arms. “Look, Beth.” He spat my preferred name at me irritably. “I’m trying to look out for you. You’re new here; you’ll want someone on your side in this jungle. Harper may look soft and harmless, but he’s not trustworthy.”

I eyed him awkwardly, a bit nervously too. “Funny…” I murmured. “People have been saying that about you.”

Xavier snorted, smirking as he looked down on me again. “That’s how it is around here. Everyone’s against everyone else.” He crossed his arms. “You have to know who to have in your court. I think you’d do well to stick with me.”

He seemed far more approachable than he had the day I’d met him. A lot less creepy too. However, I still felt uneasy around him. Something felt wrong. I stepped away from him, my hands clutching a bit tightly on my backpack straps.

“Listen…” I said as calmly as I could manage. The way his eyes were on mine suggested he could see right through me. “I’ve got to get to class, but, um, I’ll get back to you on that.”

He sighed, turning to go get his own lunch. “You’ll be sorry.” He said softly. I think he knew that I could hear him.


	9. Chapter 9

My last block of the day was a free period. Students who had free periods at the end of the day usually took the opportunity to sneak off the campus and go home while others studied in the library or hung out around the vending machines in the cafeteria; band students and people on the sports teams went off to practice early; and some students, like me, just wandered.

Wanderers had a habit of landing in the courtyard by the middle of the block, but today, it seemed oddly quiet. I decided not to question it, considering it kind of benefitted my objective to practice some actual witchcraft. And, well, practice summoning magic like Todd had instructed. I opened my spell book as I sat on the grass, only to be shocked—and kind of angry—when I saw that my book was full of new writing. It was as if someone had taken a calligraphy brush to it with bright red ink. Spells were covered up, marked with “You’re not ready” or “Never try this!!” or things to similar effects. I just knew Todd had done something; he was probably some kind of warlock for all I knew. I was considering smacking him over the head for this next time I saw him until I saw that a page was marked, one at the very beginning of the book. I flipped to it, finding “Read This Before Everything” in large letters at the top of the page.

It was the page that listed the spells he’d mentioned to me earlier: Minor Flare, Arctic Kiss, all of those and more. I read it over; I figured I might as well get used to seeing all of it. It turned out that, at least according to this book, the spell wasn’t necessarily the key to the potions working, but the magic being put into it. Todd was definitely right: skimming the book was a stupid move on my part. I studied the words for Flora’s Bless, rolling up my sleeve a bit to softly grip the first pearl closest to my palm. It felt warmer under my fingers, seeming to grow hotter when I put pressure on it. When it broke, I was shocked by a burst of cold, and watched in awe as colored wisps swirled around my hands. I noticed that they were almost attracted to the string of beads, but I caught them in my free hand by stirring my fingers through them. I whispered the words for Flora’s Bless, having to keep my composure when the magic turned green in my hand.

I was sitting there with a handful of green magic, feeling kind of stupid. The page didn’t really say what should be done once I had recited the spell. I figured I should try to use it on my potion, but as I rifled through my bag, I quickly found that I didn’t have it. Now I knew I owed Todd a good headache. I sighed, staring at my hand. The page had given a brief description of the spell’s capabilities: enhancing the effects of plant fluids, whether they were medicinal or even poisonous; giving health and longevity to plants; things of the like.

“Hm…” I murmured, pressing my palm into the grass beside me. The blades turned a deeper, richer green, and a few weeds and flowers grew up along with them. I couldn’t help the giddy smile that took my face as the dandelions and, to my surprise, some azaleas went through weeks’ worth of their life cycles within the span of seconds. The dark, rejuvenated grass and flowers spread to make a sort of circle under the coat I sat on. I flicked through the book when I started seeing mushrooms marking the edges of the circle. Apparently, I’d just made a Fairy Ring; I’d never really seen one for myself.

The petals opened up slowly and were jostled by the unfamiliar autumn winds. I shuddered a bit as well, the courtyard seemed cold all of a sudden. I heard the school bell ring, and I checked my phone. Well, at least I was already out here. Hopefully, Harper would be along soon. Even though I had a crush on Harper, I needed to prioritize getting back to Edwin and making sure no one found him.

I decided to sit there and wait, going through my spell book to find the spells that Todd had marked; and also to find the ones I intended to practice on my own when I got a chance. I wasn’t positive how many minutes I was sitting there before I heard one of the building doors open. I was sure it was going to be Harper, of course, but when I looked up, there were five students: three boys and two girls. There was something about all of them; they gave me the same uncomfortable sensation that I got whenever I was talking to Xavier. They walked in a nearly perfect synchronization, like they were programmed or something, and they were looming over me within a few seconds. I had stood up to face them, my spell book under my arm and my bag already on my shoulder.

“Uh, hey?” I said a bit awkwardly as they surrounded me while standing a respectable distance away from the circle of mushrooms.

“What do you think of it?” One of the boys murmured as if I couldn’t hear him.

“Can’t be a fairy.” A girl said from across the circle from him. “She’d have left by now. I bet she’s a witch.”

“I, um, wouldn’t say I’m a witch; not yet, I guess…” I muttered. “I was, uh—”

“It doesn’t matter what you are, honey.” The other girl announced with a smirk. The other four students fell silent as she spoke and stepped closer. She twirled her long dark hair on one finger as she towered over me, her blue eyes dark and menacing. “Boss says you’d be a good fit for my team. He sends his condolences.”

“W-What are you talking about?” I asked breathlessly. “Who would—?”

Her eyes suddenly flashed red as she passed her tongue hungrily over sharpening canines.

“No…” I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t. “Y-You can’t be.” Vampires. Real vampires.

I backed out of my ring, and she stalked through after me. There was a loud crack and a short pulse of light as she intruded; she jerked back with a stifled scream of pain.

She hissed, pupils dilating, and I took the moment to try to grab another one of the magic pearls. If this wasn’t an emergency, nothing was. “Goddamned witch! Hold her, you idiots!”

“W-Wait, please!” I yelped when two of the boys grabbed my arms to hold me in place with a grip like iron. “What’s going on?!” Looking back, it was pretty humiliating.

“Pathetic.” The girl huffed as she grabbed my chin and forced it to one side. “Nothing’s more useless than some half-baked mage trying to be a witch. You’re lucky he likes you.”

With my head being held like that, I was forced to look at one of the boys holding me. His eyes seemed…guilty. That or helpless. Everyone froze when the air was pierced by a sound: a lone, wolf-like howling followed by a rush of cold wind. The boys’ grips on my arms loosened slightly as I felt them shudder.

“What was that?!” The one not holding me sort of whined.

The shorter girl standing beside him absently tapped the frame of her glasses, flinching as she glanced up to the roof. “Francine…” She stammered. “It’s him. We should—”

“Shut up!” The girl in front of me—Francine—jerked her hand away from my chin to bark at her apparent subordinates. “Stop cowering, you idiots! Where is he?! One stupid mutt isn’t going to be able to stop all of you.”

“There! Right there!” All of them turned to where she was pointing on the roof and I looked as well. It felt as if all the air was ripped from my lungs when I saw him standing up there, long hair flowing in the swirling cold winds.

“Harper?!” I heard myself shouting in disbelief. There was something off about the way he was standing, but I didn’t have time to place it before he was taking a running jump off the building. I had to close my eyes when his body suddenly gave off a flash of blinding light. I blinked them open at the sound of the vampires speaking in panicked voices; the area around us was suddenly shrouded in a dense mist, and stepping out of the haze was a brown wolf.

More accurately, a wolfish beast walking upright on strong-looking legs, with powerful arms and large hands sporting likely clawed fingers. A canine snout protruded from its head, curtained by familiar flowing hair and with pointed ears poking out of the mane. It was a monster, and even from that distance, I could feel the power radiating off of it. My face went pale; I couldn’t bring myself to believe that it was Harper.

Francine grabbed the smaller girl by her shoulder, shoving her forward into Harper’s path. “Do something! You call yourself a mage, don’t you?!” She commanded.

That poor girl was shaking like a leaf. They all were; heck, I almost was, too; all except Francine. The young mage placed a hand on the frames of her glasses, standing her ground as Harper continued to stalk toward the group. The air seemed to swirl around her before changing color to form wisps of deep red and orange. Harper barked roughly, lunging and charging at her with his large arms acting as a wolf’s forelegs. That seemed to be the breaking point; the boys holding me panicked and flinched back, stumbling and dropping my arms. My things fell to the ground as I found myself falling with them, and I flinched when I heard the mage scream. I had looked up in time to see her thrown to the ground, her glasses shattered in Harper’s hand as small patches of flaming grass around her were extinguished by the cold wind following Harper.

“You idiots are useless.” Francine snarled, stepping forward as the beast stalked toward her next. Her hand slipped into her jacket and came back with a polished silver blade. “He’s one stupid dog!”

Harper paused as he stared between the blade and Francine. From where he stood, his wolfish form was suddenly juxtaposed by the still humanlike eyes and contrasted even further by the utter soullessness in them. One of his large hands lashed out before Francine could move, gripping the knife by its blade and more or less ripping it out of her grip while he lunged at her and caught her neck in his teeth.

The choked shriek she let out was gruesome, but she was practically unfazed otherwise, her own hands clawing at his muzzle and nose from the awkward angle he had her in. Harper growled, and she hissed as his jaw closed tighter around her throat. The other four vampires stood in terror as the snarling werewolf glared between all of them.

“Stop!” Someone shouted; it took me a minute to realize it had been myself. Harper’s eyes seemed to humanize again as he looked at me; I could see a tail flicking back and forth behind him as blood ran from his mouth.

“H-Harper, please…” One of the boys said pretty timidly, flinching as the wolf’s glare whipped in his direction. “Francine’s new, she’s just on a power trip; she didn’t know what she was getting into.” Harper growled again; Francine cringed and sunk her nails ineffectively into his jawbone.

“We’ll let you have the girl back, just let her go, dammit!” The guy behind me yelled, and in fact, both boys backed away from me and started moving toward the third guy and their mage. Harper stared at them, still a bit wary as he released his hold on the tall girl’s neck and backed away from her. She crumbled to the ground, blood soaking the collar of her blouse as she struggled to get up. Her teammates moved quickly, like the well-oiled machine I had seen when they first approached me, and they assisted her back into one of the school’s doors.

“Where are they taking her?” I asked under my breath. Surely they didn’t expect to be able to carry her through the building like that.

“Don’t worry about them so much.” I looked up at Harper as he looked over my head and walked around the courtyard, finally able to get a good look at him now that things had calmed down. He seemed like he was pushing eight feet in height, his entire body covered in brown fur and slightly inflated with extra muscle. He was built like a tank, really, and it surprised me how agile he had been to snap at Francine’s neck like that. It also suddenly hit me that he was wearing different clothes from what I’d seen him in earlier: a wide-open vest and denim pants stopping just over his kneecaps, both of which were a stark white—well, a stark white patched with pink splotches. Whenever he got close enough, I could see a black collar around his neck and hear the metal tags on it jingling.

I still couldn’t really believe it: He was a werewolf. Hell, I still couldn’t really believe that werewolves were real. Sure, I wanted them to be; I had done all that studying; but I hadn’t considered the repercussions of that before. It’s stupid in hindsight, but I wondered how that would affect a relationship with him.

“Harper?” I called out, though my voice was still a bit lost from the shock earlier.

He still heard me though, his pointed ears twitching as he walked back to me carrying a backpack he’d retrieved from the base of the wall he’d jumped down from. “Are you alright?” He asked, clear as day. It came as yet another surprise since I had been thoroughly convinced that a werewolf’s voice would be ragged and gruff trying to make human tones through a canine body. I made a mental reminder to rewrite all my notes on them later.

I nodded to his question though, my hand nervously running over my neck. “I’m fine… I can’t believe it, but... yeah.” I looked up at him, finding his glowing green eye under that curtain of hair. “Thank you, Harper. I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t shown up.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Harper huffed, stepping aside to pick up my backpack and spell book for me. “It might be my fault.”

“W-What?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, all things considered; don’t get all scared. I mean I shouldn’t have asked you to meet me in the middle of the hall like that. I got too excited; but I should have known better. I’m the one they watch the most.” He placed the book into my bag before handing it over. “I really am sorry, Beth. I won’t put you in danger like that again.”

He was hanging hi head like a guilty dog, and I couldn’t help reaching up to pet his ears. They were definitely canine ears: smooth like velvet and soft to touch.

“Actually, why did you call me out here?” I finally asked him. “I don’t remember you ever mentioning what you wanted to talk about.”

Even in this new form, his body language read like a nervous cringe with the way his ears flattened out while he played with his fingers. “I wish you weren’t forced to see me like that before.” He sighed. “I was going to tell you I was a werewolf when we came out here.” He crossed his arms and took a breath to sort of steady himself. “The reason I wanted to talk to you was because of the scent you’re carrying.”

I blinked. You have to admit, it’s an odd thing to just hear out of the blue, even from a werewolf. “…Excuse me?”

“Don’t take that the wrong way, alright? I’m serious.” He placed his hands into the pockets on his vest. “It was really faint this morning, and it’s pretty much gone now, but you had Edwin’s scent on you. I wouldn’t advise trying to lie to me about it; I know you’ve been in contact with him somehow.”

He was right. It would have been stupid to lie. Honestly, it was great; I didn’t want to lie about it anymore. I kind of just nodded, part of me cringing at the act of betraying Edwin’s trust.

“Excellent.” Harper’s tail wagged as he gently took my hands and pushed them up onto my eyes, holding them there until I realized he wanted me to do it myself. “Now, I want you to tell me where he is; I’ll take you there so I can get a read on the situation.”

“Um, okay.” I said, just sort of standing there with my eyes covered. “H-Hey, before we go anywhere, how exactly do you know Edwin?”

“I can’t really say I do—”

I flinched and nearly shrieked, shaking my head and cutting him off. Harper’s voice had suddenly been right inside my ear, practically in my mind.

“What’s wrong?!” He said worriedly while I found myself looking around in a panic wondering where he was.

My eyes fell almost immediately on the figure now standing before me: a massive brown wolf. I really do mean massive; this beast was just shy of being the same size as an average horse. Without even thinking enough to hesitate, I placed my hand on its muzzle and stared up into its heterochromatic eyes. “Harper…?” I asked breathlessly, almost dizzy from yet another wave of shock.

He whined, his tail flicking again as he pushed his forehead against mine.

“Sorry.” His voice was in my head again, and one of the tags on his collar was glowing whenever I heard it. “I didn’t really expect you to want to talk to me so soon. I should have warned you.”

“I, um…” My legs felt a bit weak under my own weight. “I don’t know if I can take much more of this.”

“Beth, please.” He insisted, shifting on his paws to try and support me. “I need you to show me where Edwin is.” He lowered himself slowly into the grass with my body more or less crumpling with him. “I promise I’ll let you rest when he’s safe.”

“I know; I know.” I said tiredly, almost in a whisper. “My house. He’s been hiding out there.”

“I should have guessed.” He huffed, “Come on. Look alive for a little while longer. You have to hold onto me, okay?”

I nodded and mumbled some kind of affirmative, slipping my coat between the straps of my backpack and climbing up onto Harper’s back. I gripped his collar as he stood up and looked around. His nose twitched, and he turned quickly, almost instantly breaking into a run before jumping up to grab at the roof of the school with his forelegs. I just barely managed to keep from screaming as I kept ahold of his collar and my legs around him as if he really was a horse. I could hear the claws on one of his hind legs scraping the window of a hopefully empty classroom before he hefted himself onto the roof and ran toward the woods behind the school.


	10. Chapter 10

“Did that wake you up, sis?” I heard Harper’s voice in my head again as I tried to lean low against him throughout the ride. “Sorry.”

I mostly focused on trying not to get sick. “I don’t think I’d want to sleep through this anyway.” I admitted, glancing around. The way the trees blurred past us left me in awe; it didn’t even feel like we were moving that fast, aside from Harper’s sudden sharp turns. He bounded effortlessly over rocks and slipped under branches, surprisingly careful to make sure he knock me into anything.

“Do you do this a lot?” I found myself asking, my voice getting caught in the wind as I watched birds and small animals scramble out of the way.

“All the time. Usually just on a practice course though. And I haven’t had a passenger in years. How am I doing?” I could hear a slight snicker in his voice as he picked up enough speed to leap clear over a rushing stream that had an old footbridge not ten feet away from where he jumped.

“Reckless…” I said simply, keeping my head down again to stave off another bit of nausea.

When I opened my eyes again, Harper had stopped behind a line of houses, his head low in the brush as a school bus and a couple of cars went by. He sprang up over the bushes as the area quieted down, walking briskly across three streets and stopping in front of my house.

“This is it, right?” Harper asked, lowering himself onto the ground again so I could climb off of him.

I cringed and stumbled a bit as I found my footing on the grass and looked up at one of the attic windows. “How did you know?” I asked, turning to face him; I almost jumped out of my skin seeing him suddenly back as the tall human I had first met.

“Your clothes.” He said simply, smoothing out the shirt and jacket he wore again and adjusting his backpack. “Malcom uses his roses to make scented dryer sheets and stuff like that. He sells them at the farmer’s market on the weekends, but it smells stronger on you than most people.”

I found myself blushing in embarrassment, deciding not to admit that I used the rose perfume my dad always made and sent me for my birthdays since he moved here. “Well, whatever; we’re here, so come on.” I said quickly, pulling out my house keys.

“Wait.” Harper suddenly said, his hand on my shoulder. He reached into his jacket, pulling out a tiny 50-cent water pistol. “I want you to hold onto this for a minute. Just in case, you know?”

He kind of stood there waiting, so I just took it, staring at it in disbelief and turning it over in my hand. “You’re not serious, are you?”

He rolled his eyes, though they were serious and the slightest bit worried. “I just have a bad feeling, alright? Go on, open the door.”

I turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open to the quiet-as-usual house. It looked exactly the way I’d left it that morning, as far as I could tell, and I closed the door as Harper stepped inside and pushed his boots off his feet. Almost immediately, his face changed as he looked around, setting his bag on the floor.

“Did you have a cat here?” He sounded almost panicked.

“Yeah, we have a cat.” I said as tossed my bag and coat on the couch, not really noticing how he’d phrased the question. “She’s cute; I’ll find her after we get Ed—Harper?!” I whipped my head around at the sound of Harper running up the stairs. I quickly followed, finding him below the attic hatch; above it, there were muffled thumps and crashes coming from inside the attic. I could hear scratches and yowling underneath the louder impacts.

“Edwin?!” I called out. Harper reached for the cord on the hatch, his other hand pushing me to the side.

“Stand back.” He said shortly before pulling the hatch open and moving to let the ladder fall. The volume of the chaos up there spilled out into the hall, and a moment after the opening was made, a small mass of black and stained white fur dropped heavily from the attic into Harper’s large hands.

“Licorice…” I gasped, watching the kitten squirm painfully as her blood coated Harper’s palms. I had no real time to think about it before the bleeding cat was shoved into my hands and Harper was pushing me backwards away from the ladder and onto the floor. He sprang backward as well just before another body dropped from the attic, landing nimbly on his feet while at the same time, moving unsteadily and slow. He stood up slowly, looking over at Harper before looking back to where I held Licorice tightly against my chest.

It was Edwin. I knew it was; there was no one else it could have been, but just like with Harper, I still couldn’t believe it. His eyes were glowing a deep red, and the glare he leveled in my direction made me feel as if my soul were being pierced through. His face was discolored; lines of faint pink ran across his right eye and nose as if he’d been scratched, and his lips and fingers were stained with blood. Licorice whined in my arms, tensing up in fear as I tried to keep pressure on the gash I’d found on her side.

“N-No…” I heard myself saying almost silently as I moved backwards toward the far wall. “Not again; not now.”

“Hey, Fangs,” Harper called, reaching out with his bloody hands. Edwin’s nostrils flared as he turned toward him instead of me. Harper stepped backward, setting a stance just before Edwin tried to tackle him. His large hands caught his attacker by the shoulders while he flailed his own hands and screeched. He grabbed Edwin by the arm, throwing him roughly to the floor toward the stairs.

Edwin scrambled to his feet with his eyes locked on Harper as he hissed loudly, baring the long, sharp canines that Harper had been referring to. His nostrils suddenly flared again, and his focus shifted to the patches of blood on his arm and shoulders where he had been grabbed. He seemed to hyperventilate as he stared at his arm, and I realized that the look in his eyes wasn’t malicious as much as it was desperate.

Harper must have noticed it as well, by the way he was moving toward him so carefully. “Edwin…It’s alright, buddy; we’re here to help you.”

Edwin moved a bit oddly, almost unnaturally to inch away from him. “G-Get back…” He snarled. “I can’t… I-I can’t control it.”

“Don’t control it then.” Harper insisted, stepping toward him while I finally worked up the nerve to stand and back away with Licorice. “Bring it on.”

“No!” Edwin whined. “I-I don’t want—” He had looked at me again, probably captivated by the sight of my blood-stained shirt. His breathing seemed to turn shallow again, and I started to retreat as he lunged. He was stopped in an instant, though, by Harper grabbing and shoving him bodily down the stairs.

“Come on!” Harper called to me before running down the stairs. There was a cacophony of hissing and scuffling before I even moved.

“But what about—” I called after him, cringing as Licorice mewled uncomfortably. I had to make a choice, so I gently set her down in the bowl of the sink in the nearby guest bathroom before running down the stairs.

Naturally, I found the two of them locked in combat, with Edwin screeching like a feral beast while Harper blocked his strikes and most of his movements with his hands. I watched in awe as Harper’s hands morphed into the large clawed paws I had seen when he was fighting Francine at the school, making his defense more effective to contain Edwin’s unpredictable movements. I moved nervously along the wall toward the entrance to the kitchen, grabbing my flashlight from the counter where I’d left it after bringing Edwin breakfast that morning.

“Beth!” Harper shouted, grabbing the vampire by his shirt to keep him from running at me. “The gun I gave you; where is it?!”

“That water pistol?! You can’t be serious!” I stepped back out into the living room, adjusting my grip on the flashlight as I cautiously watched Edwin’s movements.

“Just shoot him, Beth!” I flinched at the barking tone and volume of his voice. No mistake; he was serious about me using this thing. I had to search myself for a moment, finding the pistol where I had dropped it into one of the pockets of my jeans. Even if it was a cheap little water gun, I felt compelled to make sure I didn’t hit Harper as I fired at them.

Edwin shrieked as the water touched the bare skin on his face, hissing angrily as he recoiled in pain. I flinched when his glowing eyes found me again, and I stumbled back when he managed to shove past Harper and actually lunge at me.

“Edwin, stop!” I demanded, catching him with another shot before he could get to me.

Believe it or not, he actually did pause, once again trying to steady his breathing and control himself. “I-I’m sorry…” He whined, clutching at his head. “It hurts; I-I can’t—Stop!”

In a blur of motion, Edwin had rushed and swung at me. I sprayed him again with what was probably my last shot of water, but he still caught my arm with his sharp nails, tearing apart the lower part of my sleeve and ripping into my skin. I flinched backward with a cry of pain, and in the same motion, brought my other hand up to swing my flashlight into the side of his head.

I cringed as I watched him fall over from the heavy stun, and Harper was quick to rush over, lifting him up by the collar of his sweatshirt and moving to pull some rope out of the bag he’d carried home. I took the initiative to retrieve a chair from our dining room for him, but he motioned for me to stop before I got too close.

“I’ll handle him from here.” Harper smiled, starting to tie his wrists together behind his back. “You should get yourself cleaned up before he catches your scent again. You were amazing, Beth.”

I beamed proudly, though I probably didn’t look so good with my slightly disheveled hair and bloodstained clothes. I clutched my arm as I nodded, reluctantly leaving them be while I went back up the stairs to the bathroom.


	11. Chapter 11

Licorice moaned as I entered the room, and my heart sank again as I looked down at her. She seemed to be trying to move, so I placed a hand on her side to keep her in the sink. “Don’t worry…” I said soothingly. “It’s okay; I’ll help you… I’m going to fix this.”

Continuing to ignore the wound on my own arm, I looked down at the rosary tied around my wrist. Back when I used to obliviously skim my spell book, I used to look over the healing spells and medicinal potions more than anything else. A lot of them actually used Flora’s Bless as a base, and while most of them required a whole host of ingredients, the first thing that came to mind was a spell that only required a single flower, but could save what was written as ‘small lives’. Looking back, I really wish I had recalled all of the spell’s details before I did this.

I kept speaking quiet nothings to Licorice as I stepped over and plucked one of the roses from the vase on top of the toilet tank. I was careful where I placed my fingers; my dad doesn’t like to cut the thorns off his flowers, even when they’re just around the house; and I gently set the rose between the kitten’s paws, being sure not to set her flesh against the thorns either. I broke two of the beads on my rosary, reciting the words for Flora’s Bless first while touching both the stem of the rose and Licorice’s paw before saying the healing spell as best as I could remember it.

I watched as the rose’s stem grew and coiled around the kitten’s body like a snake, the thorns seeming to recede into the plant itself as a strange light shone through the veins of the flower’s stem and leaves. I cringed as Licorice flinched suddenly, a sense of relief finally finding me as the gash on her side began to quickly shrink as if it were being pulled closed.

I decided subconsciously that I had seen enough to be confident, and I turned and went to my room to finally do something about myself. In my own bathroom, I took the quickest shower I could manage in order to get all of the blood and its scent off of my person, cringing in pain as I cleaned and rinsed the wound on my arm. It wasn’t until I was out of the shower and pulling my first aid kit out of my bathroom cupboard that I realized my other wrist hurt. It was a dull sting, similar to the feeling I used to get when I was batting in softball back in Arizona. I sighed heavily and bore the pain while I went about covering the scratch Edwin had given me.

I’d set my blood-stained shirt in the bathroom sink to soak while I got dressed when I heard knocking at the door.

“Are you alright in there, sis?” Harper called from the hallway. “You’re kind of taking a while.”

“I’m fine, Harper.” I insisted, fixing my loose long-sleeved t-shirt and draping the rosary around my neck like a necklace. “Did something happen with Edwin? I haven’t heard a thing since I left you guys.”

“W-Well…” I heard him whine quietly. “He started getting restless when you left. I had to knock him out.”

“Harper!” I snapped at him without really thinking.

“I had to, Beth!” He insisted, sounding a lot like a kicked puppy. “He was freaking out from the blood on my hands; he tried to bite me, like, six times.”

“Why didn’t you just wash your hands?!” I had stepped over to the door and thrown it open. He flinched and whined; and I couldn’t stay mad at him with the way he acted like such a giant dog all the time.

“That’s what I came to talk to you about.” He said, standing solidly again as if he were embarrassed at cowering from me before. “Come here, would you?”

He led me back downstairs to the kitchen, and I kept my mouth shut about how he didn’t even comment on how I looked. Honestly, it would have been pretty stupid to bring up at the time…

Preemptively clearing my head of any other ridiculous thoughts, I found myself feeling nervous as we approached Edwin, who had woken up while he was alone. Harper had tied him pretty securely to the chair, his ankles bound to the legs and his wrists together behind one of the posts making up the back of the chair.

“You’re sure he won’t break out of that?” I asked uneasily, staying behind Harper.

“Not a chance.” He insisted, not even flinching when Edwin hissed and struggled violently at just the sight of us. “The ropes are treated. I wanted to ask you about this first.”

We stepped around the chair as Edwin growled, and Harper led me to the kitchen sink.

“Did you consider why I gave you a water gun to defend yourself with earlier?” He asked me somewhat suddenly.

“Not really…” I admitted. “I didn’t exactly know what to think; you kind of just sprung it on me.”

“Well, consider it now; why would I give you that dinky little water gun if I didn’t think it’d help you?” He started to fill a cup with water from the tap.

“You wouldn’t, would you?”

“Beth, I literally just promised you today that I wouldn’t put you in danger anymore.”

“So, the water gun… It didn’t have water in it or something?”

He looked back at me like that was a stupid question. I suppose it kind of was; let’s be honest.

“Not normal water, at least.” He suddenly tipped the cup over my hand, where I had it resting on the counter.

“Hey!” I shouted as a dull sting from what I assumed was heat rushed through my hand. It wasn’t really much; I hadn’t even reacted to it as much as I had to the action itself. “And what was that?”

He motioned me to calm down while he stepped up to Edwin’s chair and knelt beside his bound hands. He seemed to hesitate for a split second before upending the plastic cup and letting the rest of the water wash over Edwin’s bare hands.

The reaction was immediate, and it was almost catastrophic. Edwin jerked in the chair and a loud cry ripped from his throat. Harper cringed as he pulled the cup away, and I stood in slight shock.

“Is he alright?” I asked fearfully while Edwin panted and struggled.

“Y-Yeah…” Harper said, looking pained with guilt. “He’ll be fine. Vampires are fast healers.” He stood up, staring blankly into the now empty cup. “In any case, that’s the same stuff I had in my water gun. It’s Holy Water. Why do you have Holy Water running through your tap?”

“How the hell should I know?! I didn’t even know it wasn’t regular water!”

Harper gave a quiet huff, tapping his foot. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t have… I’ll have to look into—”

We turned at the sound of Edwin snarling again. Low, hissing growls with a surprising mix of whimpers and whines of pain.

“Please…” He stuttered, breathing a bit raggedly and writhing against the ropes. “Let me out, please; i-it hurts…”

“I’m sorry!” Harper cried out, handing off the empty cup and moving to kneel beside Edwin’s chair.

“Not the water, you—” He snapped, his face contorting for a split second as he kept fighting harder. “I can’t stand this anymore! Let me out! Please; I need to get out!”

He kept screaming, getting louder with every word until he was just crying out in wordless agony. Harper stared up at him while I kept my distance. After another moment, he stood up and looked over at me.

“How long has he been here?” He asked, trying to soothe him by running a hand through his hair. It didn’t seem to work.

“I just found him on Friday,” I admitted nervously, “but he was here for at least a few days before that; I-I don’t really know.”

Harper paced around Edwin, rolling up his sleeves to examine his arms. “The incident with his parents happened the Tuesday before last.” He said softly as I timidly approached to watch him trace some faint bite marks on the inside of the arm he looked at. “That’s almost two weeks.” He gripped the arms of the chair, turning it around to look Edwin in the face. “Edwin, buddy?” His hands came up to grip our captive’s skull. “I need you to focus; have you bitten anyone since then?”

Edwin’s eyes were a bit wild with flickers of various emotions. “S-Since… Since the—No!” He jerked his head out of Harper’s hands, snapping at one of them viciously before he panted and shook his head. “I-I didn’t want to… Couldn’t control--” He screeched in pain again, and I could see tears running down his face. “I’m sorry!” He shouted in a broken voice. “Please, I’m sorry…” He sobbed quietly, finally seeming to give up on his struggle in the chair.

I wanted to touch his shoulder like I had done before, to try to calm him even though Harper hadn’t been able to.

“It’s okay, bud.” Harper said gently, taking a hold of his head again and staring up into his eyes. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt them. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I have to find my sister…” Edwin said under his breath. “She—She ran away.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes!!” His eyes were violent again at the very suggestion. “I’d never hurt Veronica! Never!”

Harper took a breath, holding him still in the chair. “Okay, okay…”

I was still having trouble absorbing the truth of what happened to the Carson family, but I found myself speaking anyway: “He, um, He told me when I first found him that he was looking for his sister. She was pronounced missing on the news too.”

After glancing at me, Harper huffed and stood up, resting a hand on Edwin’s head. “I suppose that’s true. She would be a lot easier to find if she was dead, after all.”

I found a sort of twisted sense of relief from that.

“So, he’s really…” I murmured, finally having a chance to catch myself up.

“A vampire?” Harper supplied for me. “Yeah. And if your stories line up right, that means he’s gone without blood for quite a while. He’s starving.”

“Does this happen to all vampires?” I found myself asking, approaching Edwin as Harper wandered the kitchen. “And, um, can we fix it?”

“Well, yes, and kind of.” Harper leaned into the refrigerator, rummaging around. “It’s not like he’s broken or anything. Not yet, at least.” He moved briskly toward the large freezer set in the corner, opening it and reaching inside. “What we’ll have to do is—Oh!” He pulled out a tub of ice cream by its handle. “You guys eat this junk?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “It’s just ice cream.”

“Oh, you haven’t had it then. This is CH Local ice cream. See, for some reason…” He pulled the lid off of the ice cream container, making a face as he saw that someone had been taking scoops from it. “Ice cream made by that big farm on the edge of town is terrible. They must have 200 cows out there, you’d think one of them would give the milk to make half-decent ice cream.”

“I think my uncle bought that last week.” I mentioned. “Hey, wait a second!” I stopped him from continuing to nose around our kitchen with his bloody hands, retrieving a bowl from our cabinet—a sort of large one, per his specification—and a mixing spoon from the drawer. “What is the point of this, exactly?”

“Oh, trust me, it’s a proven method.” Harper smiled as he stood at the counter and scooped nearly half the tub into the bowl. He sounded like even he couldn’t believe it. “The reason vampires get like this is because they’re hungry right? And you’ve been giving him food, lately, right? Because you thought he was human. The thing is, monsters can be satiated with just about anything you give them, as long as it’s enough. Werewolves, man, they can eat an entire crate-load of meat if they wanted to; and after a while, they’re usually be able to train themselves to survive on more reasonable amounts. The same thing works with vampires, though it’s a bit tougher.”

He handed the tub to me and took the bowl once he had filled it. I heard him pulling another chair from the dining table while I put the ice cream away. He sat calmly in front of Edwin, who looked beyond the definition of tired, and gingerly held out a spoonful of ice cream from the bowl he held. Edwin, understandably, eyed him like he was insane, but didn’t make an effort to lunge at his hand.

“This is somehow the least strange thing that’s going to happen today, bud.” I sighed, walking over and leaning on the back of Harper’s chair. “You might as well go ahead; you know we want to help, right?”

The trapped vampire gave a slow nod, though he still seemed embarrassed at having to let someone spoon-feed him a huge bowl of ice cream. It actually didn’t take long for signs of “life” to return to his face. The slightest bit of color filled his skin, and after watching his eyes for a while, I realized they had gone back to the same deep violet I had seen when I met him. Within a few more moments, he started to resist, a slight grimace on his face as he leaned back in the chair.

“Stop…” He whined when Harper playfully offered him the half-full spoon again. “I-I feel…” He flinched, tensing up and coughing. “Ugh…”

“Finally…” Harper chuckled, setting the empty bowl on the table and standing up. “Damn, did you feed him anything at all?” He asked me teasingly, stretching for a moment before going to open the dishwasher.

“Yes, I fed him, you jerk.” I chuckled, stepping closer to Edwin and leaning in front of him. He actually smiled, making my heart swell with relief, even if he did kind of look like he was going to throw up. “Is he going to be alright?”

“Ah, he’ll be fine.” Harper had retrieved a couple of bottles of water from our refrigerator, and was using that water to finally clean the blood off his hands and everything he’d touched. “The headache alone should keep him from raging again; you can cut him loose if you want.”

I hesitated for a few seconds, but I moved to undo the complicated knot holding his wrists.

“Beth…” He mumbled, flexing his hands. “I’m so sorry about all of this. I should have told you what happened to me.”

“Yeah, I think I would have appreciated that,” I chuckled, wincing at the knowledge that I probably would have freaked out if he had actually confessed that he was the one who killed his parents when we met. I was still kind of reeling from it, honestly. This kid, just barely my height, had the strength to do something like that to two adults.

The rope finally fell off into my hands, and I gingerly rubbed the rope burns that were left on his wrists. He cringed and flexed his fingers before pulling his hands up to his chest. I was about to ask him another question when Harper piped up, his voice full of concern.

“Beth… What did you do to your cat?”

“Oh, I--!” I stood quickly, about to go get her, but Edwin and Harper were staring into the hallway.

Licorice sat watching us, black fur spattered and stained with green and bright red rose petals apparently sprouting out of her head and neck like a mane.


End file.
